Real talk for indie devs: Skip the open-source fantasy unless you're using it as a marketing trojan horse. Day 1 should be about monetization strategy, not GitHub stars. The "build it and they'll pay" myth is dead. Revenue model comes before your first commit, or you're just building free software for corporations to profit from. Open-source works when you're VC-backed burning cash for market share, or when it's a deliberate funnel to paid tiers. Solo devs romanticizing the open-source hustle usually end up with 10k stars and $0 MRR. Figure out the money first.